29.11.17

Reports on Brexit divorce bill deal are ‘rumours’, says Barnier

The
EU’s chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier addresses guests on the
second day of the Berlin Security Conference in Berlin on November 29,
2017. / AFP PHOTO / John MACDOUGALL

The EU’s chief Brexit
negotiator Michel Barnier on Wednesday dismissed as “rumours” reports of
a deal between London and Brussels on Britain’s exit bill.
Both the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times reported, citing
diplomatic sources, that London and Brussels had agreed on Britain’s
financial obligations but had not settled on an exact amount for the
so-called divorce bill.
Both sides have now accepted the British will pay between 45 and 55
billion euros ($53-63 billion), with the final figure depending “on how
each side calculates the output from an agreed methodology”, the
Telegraph said.

Meanwhile the FT reported Britain would cover EU liabilities worth as
much as 100 billion euros, but if structured as net payments over many
decades, that could drop to less than half that amount.
But speaking in Berlin at a security conference, Barnier described the reports as “rumours”.
“There is a subject on which we are continuing to work — despite the
claims or rumours in the press today, that’s the issue of financial
engagements,” Barnier said.
“We are not going to have 27 (EU members) pay for what was decided by
28, it’s as simple as that. So we want to settle the accounts,” said
Barnier.
Asked about the reports, a spokesman for Britain’s Department for
Exiting the European Union said “intensive talks” are taking place in
Brussels this week, and did not address the divorce bill directly.
The European Commission declined to comment.
An agreement would be a major breakthrough as Britain prepares for an
EU summit in December where it is hoping to get the go-ahead to start
the next phase of talks on future trade ties with the EU.
It would leave two major areas on which the two sides still do not
agree — expatriate citizens’ rights after Brexit and the future of the
Irish border.